X Nation
by luvlani88
Summary: Enter Pangaea City; a city built on diversity of cultures and people from around the globe. It's the place everyone wants to be. Ludwig is perfectly content with protecting it. Until Gilbert assigns him with the task of taking down The X Nation; a group with deadly secrets. Perhaps with his new team, they can uncover its threatening secrets. And maybe each others' secrets as well.
1. Chapter 1

**Back at it again after a very long hiatus!**

 **And to apologize profusely, a long first chapter. Well, it's decently sized, I suppose.**

 **So much has changed since I last updated; it's been about 7 months and I doubt any of my original readers are still reading. If they are, I'll tell you that I plan to finish Buried Within soon. Right now I'm working on a few projects, and approaching graduation, so I'm a little (okay, a lot) behind. My apologies.**

 **Anyways, this is a new project of mine that I'm hoping will be as much of a success as The Last Breath was. I think that this one will be a little darker than The Last Breath - while it did have some dark moments, I tried to skip over what I could. This will be a little bit more realistic and as a result, slightly darker. Hopefully it's just as entertaining! And this time I'll try to include a little something for every Hetalia fan out there - regardless off your OTP.**

 **Truth be told, I don't want to start another FRUK vs USUK war. That was rough.**

 **So enjoy this new story! It's a little more mystery and crime than before, but as you know, I try to remain diverse!**

 **Thanks so much for reading! I'm back again and I will be for a while. Thanks for your patience, you guys, I appreciate you all so much!**

 **What's my tag line again? Oh, right.**

 **As always, reviews, favourites, follows and feedback are all greatly appreciated!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **\- luvlani88**

* * *

" _Are you completely sure about this?"_ The voice asked, sounding more doubtful than pleased. The albino smirked, a sure sign of mischief while his fingers drummed on the desk impatiently. "You don't trust me?"

" _Only because I have to."_ The person on the other side of the TV screen didn't seem happy at all, and frowned at the albino with narrowed eyes. " _You realize what all this means, don't you? You realize this isn't what we thought."_  
He nodded, and then grinned, his crimson eyes brightening even in the dark of the room. " _I know. It's better than what we thought, isn't it?"_

The woman sighed impatiently, rolled her eyes, and then said, " _I hope you're prepared for this. Don't underestimate anything, and more importantly, don't overestimate yourself. Even you have blind spots, you know."  
_ "Everyone has blind spots." He waved his hand as if to brush off the mere thought. "Besides, I will be ready. Just give me time-"  
" _This isn't just about me anymore."_ She snapped. " _For now, in this city, yes, I'm your only superior. But if this is bigger than what we initially thought, you'll eventually be dealing with bigger things than me. And once you get there, there'll be no guarantee I'll be able to help you. Do you understand?"  
_ The albino said nothing. He stared at her.  
" _Do you understand?!"_ Her words were sharper.  
The edges of his lips lifted into a mischievous half-smile. "I understand." He said. And then, "And for the record, I'm awesome. I don't overestimate myself."  
It was her turn to smirk. " _Yes, you do."_  
"No I don't."  
" _You're such a child."  
_ "And you love me anyways." He grinned cheekily.  
She rolled her eyes again. " _Whatever. Good luck. Contact me when you've got them all."  
_ "That'll be soon."  
" _I know."_  
The video feed ended and he was left staring at a blank, dark TV monitor. For a moment, he stared at it without any expression, before a slow smile spread across his face.  
 _When I've got them all._ He thought. _Better get started then._

" _Why did you call me in?"_ Ludwig asked his older brother who walked ahead of him with a quickened pace, skimming through a file as he hurried. Gilbert barely glanced back. _"You'll see, don't worry."  
_ As Germany weaved around the other members of the police and investigation force in an attempt to catch up to his brother. At least his hair made him easy to spot. _"What's this about, Bruder?"_ Ludwig pressed, but Gilbert only grinned as he made his way to the small set of stairs leading to the semi-floor. The semi-floor of the HQ was made up of two rooms; Gilbert's office and a conference room that had been affectionately nicknamed the fishbowl due to it's massive floor to ceiling windows that took up one entire wall, giving the occupants inside an amazing view of the city.  
Gilbert ascended the steps and Ludwig paused before following him. When they entered his office, Ludwig shut the door sharply behind them. _"Is this a new case?"_ It was the only explanation that had for his brother's odd behavior. Occasionally, Gilbert would call him when he had a new case that was unique, one that stood out from the rest. Ludwig was always more than happy to help with the investigation, but why the mystery this time? What was different?  
 _"Sort of, yeah."_ Gilbert shuffled through a few files on his desk before picking up a small stack of thin file folders and turning back to his little brother. _"This one's pretty intense though. You sure you're up for it?"  
_ Ludwig stared at him in surprise for a moment. Never before had his brother asked him if he was _up for it_. This was serious. _"Of course."_ He answered, and he hoped he was right.  
The albino grinned with content. _"Good. Then in that case, there's some people I want you to meet."_ He brushed past the blonde and reopened the door.  
 _"I'm working with a team?"_ Germany asked, but the question seemed to fall short of Gilbert's ears, probably due to his _selective_ hearing.  
Instead, the strode over to the fishbowl and paused with his hand on the door handle. _"Come on."_ He was smiling, and his eyes shone with excitement, a look that was ever so familiar to Ludwig. Gilbert turned the handle, opened the door and disappeared inside.

The German followed him in without hesitation.

When he walked into the fishbowl, he paused just a few feet inside the room. The wall on the opposite side of the room and half of the adjoining wall to the left was all windows, and let in the warm rays of the early morning sun. The room really did resemble a fishbowl.  
There were two things that Ludwig didn't recognize in the room. The first was sitting at the conference room's long table in the centre, his hands folded nicely on top of the table with a straight posture and a fresh cup of tea in front of him. He wore a white lab coat with an insignia on the left breast pocket; gold and white streaks... Ludwig recognized it as the insignia of the laboratories downstairs, the city's most prized medical and forensic research facilities. Underneath he wore a green and white checkered sweater vest. What stood out even more was the blonde's strong, dark eyebrows that reflected a slightly irritated mood, as if it wasn't already obvious in his green eyes.  
The other surprise stood with his back to the window, but glanced behind him as Ludwig entered. His eyebrows were normal-sized, and in the orange glow of the sun, Ludwig could see longish dark blonde hair with soft blue eyes and a shadow of a beard. Rather than a lab coat, he wore a casual tan suit with a dark blue button-down shirt. His eyes held a playful and almost charismatic gaze.  
"This is my little brother," Gilbert said in english as he let the files flop onto the table. "Ludwig Beilschmidt. He's part of the team too."

 _Team?_ Ludwig thought. So he had been right, there would be a team of them. _But for what?_

He turned his attention back to the two new-comers. " _Bruder,"_ Gilbert said as he gestured to the man in the lab coat. "This is Arthur Kirkland. He's a scientist down in the labs."  
The man named Arthur's expression softened somewhat as he nodded and stretched a hand to shake Ludwig's. "Forensic expert." He corrected in a British accent. "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too…" Ludwig replied, his voice trailing off. _Forensic expert?_ He pondered. What was going on?

"And this," Gilbert gestured to the man by the window. "Is an old friend of mine. You may not remember him, though. This is Francis Bonnefoy."  
Francis Bonnefoy turned completely around to shake Ludwig's hand. " _Bonjour._ " He said with a smile and a French accent. "The pleasure is all mine."

Ludwig wasn't sure what to say to this, so he just nodded. "I'm sorry," He said as he pulled away. "It's nice to meet you both, but can somebody please explain to me what's going on?"  
Arthur put down his tea cup as he looked up in surprise. "Oh, I would've expected that you already knew seeing that...Francis!" He snapped suddenly, and Germany turned to face the frenchman in surprise.  
He didn't understand why Arthur had suddenly yelled at him, until Arthur followed up with, "Give it back to him."  
With a sigh and a somewhat apologetic smile, Francis produced a watch from behind his back. Ludwig's watch, to be exact. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to keep it." Francis smiled as he handed it back to a stunned-looking German. "Just wanted to see how long it would take you to notice."

Arthur rolled his eyes at him as Gilbert explained. "He's a con-artist and an expert pickpocket." He said as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker on the table in the corner of the room. "He could probably lift your shirt of your back and you wouldn't notice until you got home."  
Ludwig stared at the Frenchmen in awe. _A con-man…!_ "How did you-"  
Before he could question him, a knock came at the door. The group turned to regard a rather tall and well built man with a light coloured scarf around his neck and a long tan trenchcoat with dark pants, shoes and gloves. "Am I late?" The giant asked. Despite his intimidating demeanor, his voice sounded quite innocent and had a Russian accent.  
"Nope. Did you just get off the plane?" Gilbert asked and the Russian nodded. "Come on in. This is Ludwig, my awesome younger brother."  
The Russian went right up to Ludwig, who instinctively backed away slightly, and held out a hand. "Ivan Braginski." The Russian introduced himself.  
"L-Ludwig Beilschmidt." Ludwig responded, wincing a bit at Ivan's firm grip.

Gilbert jabbed a thumb at the Russian. "This guy's the brawn of the operation." He explained, as if it was necessary. "Weapons expert."  
Ivan's content smile didn't waver as he sat down at the table, nodding to the others in greeting.  
"Anyone else?" Ludwig muttered, shaking his head.  
As if on cue, an asian man hurried into the room, carrying a sleek black laptop in his arms. The man wore a light blue dress shirt and dark pants that matched the colour of his hair. "My apologies, Gilbert-san." He said with a thick Japanese accent. "I am so very sorry that I am late."

Arthur answered instead. "You're not late, Kiku. We've just barely started."

Before he could respond, Ludwig said, "Hang on, I'm sure i've seen you before." He murmured. "Have we met?"  
Kiku bowed to him respectfully. "Ah, you must be Gilbert-san's younger brother." His smile was humble. "My name is Honda Kiku, or in english, Kiku Honda. You may have seen me around before. I work in the Hive."

The Hive was the closest thing to the underground world in the HQ. It was essentially an underground computer district, with computer experts and tech geniuses bringing in tons of streams of information, which is why it was usually known as the Hive, with the workers bringing in info to the queen , or in this case, the HQ. It was further underground, several levels down from the labs. Ludwig had never been down there, but he knew of its existence. On more than one occasion, investigators sent messages, usually names of suspects down to the Hive, which would send back up all of the information that they had on whoever they were suspicious of. It was like a bank of data and info, and for a moment Ludwig wondered what secrets the laptop that Kiku was carrying held. He had never met anyone who worked down there. Not until now.  
"Ludwig Beilschmidt." He introduced himself, and Kiku bowed again. "It's very nice to meet you, Beilschmidt-san."  
"Ah, please, call me Ludwig."

As Kiku settled into a seat beside Arthur, Ludwig turned to Gilbert _. "Does everyone know who I am?"_

Gilbert offered a small shrug in reply.

"Dudes!" A loud voice suddenly startled the occupants in the room, as another man entered, this one with dirty blonde hair, glasses perched in his nose, a light grey shirt and jeans. "You have no idea how bad the traffic is outside. Like seriously, not cool." He carried a pink box in his hands and set it down on the table before plopping himself unceremoniously into a chair.  
Arthur scowled at him. "Could you be any more rude?" He snapped, although the American with the box of donuts didn't seem to hear nor care.  
Gilbert grinned as he patted the American on the shoulder in greeting. "Alfred Jones." He nodded to him. "Strategist and bomb expert."  
 _Bomb expert?_ Ludwig stared at him. _Is he on a bomb squad? Is this a bomb squad?!_

Alfred glanced up. "Oh, hey. You're Gil's little bro, right?"  
When Ludwig nodded, Alfred smiled. "Nice to meetcha, dude." He said before opening the donut box and taking out a chocolate glazed donut, which in the next moment had a bite mark in it. Arthur and his eyebrows continued to frown at him.

"So," Gilbert said to the room, and Ludwig suddenly had a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, his brother would call the room to order and somebody could explain to him what the hell was going on. "We're just waiting for-"

Ludwig's hopes of normalcy were shattered with a sudden knock.

At the window.

The group turned to regard the asian man with dark hair tied back into a ponytail, hanging upside down in front of the window. His head and chest were visible, but his arms and the rest of him were hidden by the top of the window and the ceiling.  
" _What the hell?!"_ Ludwig exclaimed.  
The man, clearly asian and unbothered, pointed to the window and Francis went over to it. As the Frenchman's hand touched the latch to open it, the asian man disappeared. " _Who is that?!"_ Ludwig exclaimed, somewhat angry that nobody else seemed bothered by the sudden appearance of a man hanging upside down on the _outside of a building._

As Francis opened the window as wide as it could go, Ludwig watched as the man swung himself into the room, backside and feet first before twisting in mid-air to land facing the group on his back haunches, one hand planted on the ground. It had to have been the most graceful act Ludwig had ever seen, and what was almost even more graceful was the way he rose up from the ground in the next instant, as if what he had just done hadn't been at all potentially life-threatening. He wore dark jeans with a white shirt, and a dark blue jacket swung over his shoulders. At first Ludwig thought he had a cigarette in his mouth, but instead he realized that it was just a stick of pocky.  
"Dude, what happened?" Alfred asked. "Train was delayed?"  
The man placed himself swiftly into a chair and rolled his eyes. "I hate talking the train, aru. It's too dirty!" His accent was clearly Chinese, and his voice was almost childlike in an adorable fashion.

Gilbert stepped in before Ludwig could say anything. "Yao Wang." He introduced the two. "My little brother Ludwig. Bet you can guess what he does." Gilbert chuckled.  
"Fly through windows and scare people to death?" Ludwig asked, only half-kidding.  
Yao smiled as he pulled out his cell phone. "I'm a martial artist. Gilbert calls me a ninja, aru." He glanced distractedly at his phone, complete with a Hello Kitty case. "I can get in and out of places with no problem, aru."

 _Mein Gott…!"_ Ludwig suddenly felt the need to sit down. "Well, now that we're all here, can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" He exclaimed as he sat down in a chair.  
The albino shook his head as he sat down. "We're still waiting for Feliciano."  
"Who? Hang on a second." Ludwig paused. "Has everyone here been briefed on this but me?"  
The others looked around at each other for a moment before nodded and murmuring various forms of 'yes'.  
 _Wow._ Ludwig thought and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright...Who else did you say we were waiting for?"  
"Feliciano." Gilbert repeated. When Ludwig blinked at him, Gilbert took a breath and said, "Vargas."  
Instantly, Germany's eyes widened. "Vargas?" He repeated in awe. "As in, _the_ Vargas?"

"Not _the_ Vargas, obviously." Gilbert laughed. "He's long gone."  
"But then how…?"  
Gilbert smirked, his eyes glinting. "He had a son."  
"Feliciano~!" Francis exclaimed suddenly and hurried with open arms to meet the young man who entered the room last.  
Ludwig stared at him in awe as the young man named Feliciano smiled.

He wasn't particularly tall and not very short either, and his hair was a tawny colour with a bit of auburn to it. He had a slight natural tan and caramel amber coloured eyes with long dark lashes and full lips, and in his hands he carried a box of what looked like more pastries. Feliciano was dressed in dark blue dress pants and a white button down shirt with a matching dark-blue jacket, casual yet somehow still elegant. It was obvious he was Italian, not just from the name but also going on his bright and happy demeanor, his tan, and his expensive looking clothing, which could only be Italian.

In short, the young man at the door was quite beautiful.

"At last, you've arrived, _mon dieu~_ " Francis hugged him tightly.  
" _C-ciao,_ Francis." Feliciano struggled under Francis' tight grasp. "Sorry I'm, uh, late." He gasped as Francis finally released him. His voice was an adorable pitch with an Italian accent. "I brought breakfast~!"He smiled to the group of people as he sat down beside Francis.  
After a few minutes of chatting and passing around breakfast pastries,coffee and the donuts that Alfred brought, Gilbert finally called the meeting to order.

Ludwig glanced around at the group of people, all happily eating and eager for their task. He had been offered food many times, but he declined. He had already eaten, and quite frankly, he was too agitated to stomach anything.  
 _Who are all these people?_ Ludwig thought as he glanced around the room. _They're so...different._

"Alright, here's the deal." Gilbert said finally, and Ludwig sat straighter, eager for answers.

The albino stood at the side of the room, in front of the large TV screen mounted on the wall.

"You're probably all wondering why I brought you all here, from literally all over the world. And I'll get to that. But instead of the awesome me talking too much, I'm going to let someone else do all of the work."  
From his pocket he produced a small silver remote. When he clicked the on button, the screen illuminated, and a face stared back at the group of people.

It was impossible not to know who she was. If the light brown locks of hair and green eyes didn't give it away, it was the flower shaped pin in her hair and the luxury office setting behind her.  
"Mayor Hedervary?" Francis raised an eyebrow.  
 _Gil and her are old friends…_ Ludwig pondered, as if trying to come up with an explanation for all of this. _But what does the mayor of Pangaea have to do with any of this?_

"Liz." The albino greeted the mayor. "I've got them all."  
 _"Excellent."_ the mayor offered a small smile in greeting, but her face soon grew serious. _"You're probably all dying to hear more details about the case."  
What case? _Ludwig suddenly felt very uninvolved with the entire fiasco. Nobody had given him any information. In fact, he had only just learned about the case's existence in the first place.  
"Is it true that it's worse than you thought?" America asked suddenly, ignoring Arthur's glare. "I heard it's pretty bad."

Before the Mayor had a chance to speak, Gilbert spoke up. "Oh, sorry, wait a sec."  
"What, Gil?" Mayor Hedervary rolled her eyes.  
"I didn't tell Ludwig." He said, glancing at his little brother, who at that moment felt more than relieved that his brother hadn't completely forgotten about him. "Start from the beginning."  
 _Thank you._ Ludwig thought, relieved.  
Mayor Hedervary nodded. "Of course. This case isn't anything relatively new, but it's escalated to point that we've decided is more than we thought we could initially handle." She explained. "You're familiar with Pangaea City's crime rate and statistics, yes?" She asked Ludwig.  
The German nodded. "Relatively small, with minimal first degree homicide rates." He recalled. "More petty crimes and a few break-ins, if anything."

The mayor nodded. "That's correct. The City has excellently low crime stats, which, as you know, is impressive for a city this size with so many diverse social groups."

Ludwig frowned. "So then, what's this about?" He asked, feeling oddly informal. "What do we have a case on?"

Mayor Hedervary paused, and bit her lip. "Ludwig," she said carefully. "Have you heard of the X Nation?"  
The German raised an eyebrow. "The X Nation?" He could barely remember what little he had heard of it. "It's just a small gang, isn't it? They used to commit regular crimes. Like a mafia, but not as big or as organized...Only a few members-"  
"So you've heard of it?" the Mayor cut him off.  
Ludwig blinked. "Well, yes."  
"In that case," the Mayor said. "Forget everything you've ever known about them."

"...Mayor Hedervary?"

"I'm serious, Ludwig. Everything we thought we knew was incorrect if not dead wrong. The X Nation is more than just a small gang. It's larger and more powerful than we thought. That's why we've called all of you in. Gil and I have made a decision, and it involves all of you. Gil, hand him the file."  
Gilbert slid a file across the desk to the German who picked it up eagerly and opened it only to find a few pages inside. A few notes were taken. "All we know," the Mayor continued. "Is that they've been killing and we can't see a pattern to it."

Ludwig squinted at the words on the page to be sure that he was seeing it properly. The top of the file page said "The X Nation", followed by the usual basic information that legally had to be written with a case file. The pages within described a few homicides, an included pictures of the bodies that were found. As Ludwig skimmed over the information, he looked surprised.

"A signature." He said. "They carve an 'x' into the victim's bodies…" He stared down at the photographs, and triple checked the notes in the file to be sure he wasn't mistaken.

Arthur cleared his throat. "Ahem, are these carvings made before or after the time of death?"  
"It varies." Gilbert explained. "The first two were left after, but the last was made before. All three bodies are down in the morgue. We were hoping you could take a look."  
Arthur nodded. "Of course."  
"So," Ludwig looked back up at the mayor. "This gang has been killing recently. What does that have to do with us?"  
The Mayor shook her head. "We think it may be longer than recent. We might have just never noticed before. And also, this isn't just about Pangaea City."

"This is happening in other cities?" Ludwig asked.  
"In other _countries."_ The mayor explained. "Maybe even worldwide. We're not sure yet. Flip that page."

He did as was told and found himself staring at a map of the world, with several red dots placed in seemingly random places. _"Mein gott…_ " He muttered as he scanned over the map. "One in Greece, two in Spain and one in South Korea? How do you know this isn't just a copycat?"  
"The carvings are the same. The exact same." Alfred observed as he pushed his glasses farther up on his nose with a finger, flipping through the pages of the file folder with the other hand. "And I somehow doubt that a couple of dudes in South Korea and the Mediterranean has heard of this. I hear it's been kept quite so far.  
"There could be more of them." Gilbert said, and everyone in the room glanced up at him in surprise. "We're not sure, yet." He explained. "We're trying to compile information. The Hive is working day and night, but the carvings in the chests are the only things we have to go on. Also, um…" He glanced at the Mayor, and the two exchanged hesitant yet knowing looks.  
"What?" Ludwig pressed. "What is it?"  
Before Gilbert could say anything, the Mayor spoke. "We captured one of the group's operatives." She said.  
" _Captured?"_ Ivan repeated.  
Mayor Hedervary nodded. "Just a hitman working for them. We captured him a few blocks away from the last crime scene. A neighbour heard screaming and called the police. Shot him in the leg while he was running. We couldn't find anyone else, but it was obvious that he wasn't the only one involved."  
Francis leaned forward. "You interrogated him, yes?"  
"No. Didn't have a chance to." She replied, and spoke quickly to ease their confused expressions. "A few officers picked him up and he just started talking. Told us everything he knew on the spot. But right in the middle of a sentence, he was shot. It was a sniper on top of a roof, but he got away. Somebody wanted to keep him from talking."  
"A sniper? Wait," Ludwig frowned. "What did he say before he was killed?"

Mayor Hedervary frowned. "That they were blackmailing him with his mother and father. Also, he mentioned a leader."  
"A leader of the group?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.  
The mayor nodded. "He said he hadn't seen the leader, but he was powerful apparently. Kept in the shadows, but deadly. And that's where you all come in."  
The group was nearly silent, awaiting their instructions eagerly.  
It was Feliciano who spoke up first. "You want us to find the leader?"  
"We want you to bring down the whole group. Finding the leader will be essential to that."

Yao made a small huffing noise. "It's not so much a group anymore, is it, aru?" He said. "It's a mafia."  
"Hang on." Alfred sat back in his chair. "Let's be honest, for a sec. There's powerful mafias in the world that span across borders. There's one centered in Asia and another centered in South America, isn't there? And there's…" Alfred's voice trailed off before he stopped himself. He looked distracted for a minute before continuing." We can't be the only ones after these guys."  
"But for only a handful of murders?" Ivan pointed out. "On a worldwide scale, its minimal."  
Mayor Hedervary cleared her throat. "They've been causing other problems too. Damaged power grids, cargo ships, it's like they've been vandalizing the world."

"And we have to take them down." Ludwig said finally. "We have to find the leader, find out what they want, and take this mafia down…?"  
Gilbert nodded with a grin. "Exactly! It'll be awesome! That's why we specifically chose all of you for the job. You'll make a really great team."  
The Mayor agreed. "As a team, you'll be well-rounded." She explained, now with a smile. "And of course, you'll have the support of Pangaea's finest."

"Well?" Gilbert said suddenly, looking expectantly at his little brother.  
Ludwig blinked at him. "Well, what?"  
"Are you in?"  
Ludwig stared at his brother for a moment, and then glanced around at the room filled with strangers, his new teammates. His gaze dropped to the case file on his lap. This what not at all what he had expected to walk into this morning, and yet...

"Yes." He said finally. "I'm in."

* * *

" _Pangaea City." The man said carefully.  
The figure at the desk looked up slowly. "Pangaea City…" A hum of approval came from the person. "A diverse hub of cultures and societies from all across the globe in one city. Of course." _

_Glancing back up, the figure said, "Get me as much information as you can on this new 'Team'._


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi there. My name's luvlani88, and it's been about 2 years since I updated this story.**

 **As you can imagine, a lot has happened since the last time I've written fanfiction, or been on this site at all. I'm going to have to update my profile, haha.**

 **To give you a short summary of what's** **happened since the last time I was here, I've graduated high school and am moving out to start university in about two weeks; I'm a Computer Science and Math major, weirdly enough. Don't ask me where I got my love of writing from lol.**

 **As you can imagine, this is really awkward timing for me to want to write again, but I can't help it. I want to finish what I started, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who was waiting for this story to continue 2 years ago and was disappointed.**

 **So here's the plan! I have another two weeks until I move out, and three until I start classes; so I plan to finish this story one way or another. It's going to take a lot of time, writing, rewriting and editing, but hey, it's summer! I've got time to spare.**

 **That being said, my uploads are going to be all over the place for sure - I'm going to try to write everyday and finish what I can with the best quality possible, so you might even see more than one chapter uploaded per day, or one in a week, etc. etc. Whatever the schedule turns out to be, I'll do my best!**

 **One last note; I just want to say thank you to all of my original readers (not just for this story, but from my others as well). I had a blast writing for you guys, and thank you for your continued support. I'm sorry to have let you down on such a hiatus, but I'll do my best to finish what I started, as I said. If any of you are still reading this, thank you very much for everything. I hope you'll forgive me. You can leave me a scolding review as revenge!**

 **Well, here we go. A complete dive into my luvlani88 account. We'll see how this goes! I'm glad to be back, this is such a nostalgic feeling...I feel like I'm home, in a way! See you in the next chapter!**

 **As always (oh man can barely remember my tag line i'm so sorry), likes, comments, reviews, ratings and feedback are all greatly appreciated!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **\- luvlani88 (close enough?)**

* * *

As Mayor Hedervary said her goodbyes and the screen went dark again, Ludwig was suddenly struck by a simple realization. Major Hedervary - Liz, as she often told him to call her, although he had always thought that calling her by anything close to her first name was too unprofessional - had taken some of her very precious time not just to disclose the contents of the case and speak to the group, but to brief him specifically on what knowledge he had been lacking. This, of all things, struck him as odd. He didn't mind the (virtual) visit from the Mayor, but he couldn't help but wonder why she couldn't have just called Gil to make sure that the team was briefed, and that they were all on board.

 _This case is important to her._ He concluded. _But why?_

As intriguing as it was, the majority of the crimes committed by this group weren't in Pangaea City's limits or even within the country. So why the intense interest?

 _Shouldn't this be a case for Interpol?_ The question popped into his mind, but he shook himself away from answering it. Ludwig wasn't one to question his orders. If this case was his, then the case was his and that was that.

Although, he would have to ask Gil some questions later.

For now, he turned his attention back to the group of people in front of him, the group of new strangers who were terrifying yet interesting at the same time, and decided that he had better get to work.

"Damn." Alfred exclaimed as he pulled a photograph from one of the case files. "Look at that bullet hole." He held up the photograph.  
Ludwig shifted through the papers in his own file and lifted out the photograph that Alfred was referring to. "Whoever shot the operative," Alfred continued. "had one hell of a shot. He was dead on centre. Perfect aim; straight through the middle of the forehead."

"So the sniper was experienced?" Ludwig found himself asking.

"Very." Ivan responded, his violet eyes scanning diligently over the photograph. "I'd say he even pick right bullet too. I think it must have gone straight through brain; strong but small. Not like bullet wound on his leg from police; the shot that killed him was clean. Did anyone else get shot by sniper?" He turned to Gil.

Gil shook his head. "Just the operative. Actually," Gil paused, pondering. "Its funny you mention the sniper choosing the right bullet Ivan, because one of the officers that interrogated him was standing almost right in front of him when he got shot."

"And he didn't get hurt?" Ivan asked.

"Nope." Gil hummed. "He was holding onto the guy's right arm to put him in cuffs, when I guess the bullet whizzed right by right in front of his face. So I guess you're right, Alfred. Perfect aim."

"Maybe ex-military." Ludwig realized that it was him who had spoken. His skin bristled slightly as the eyes in the room turned to regard him. "The sniper, I mean. If his aim is so perfect then he could be ex-military."

"Probably." Ivan nodded, a small smile on his face. Ludwig wondered if that smile was friendly or if it was meant to be condescending. He wasn't a weapons expert or strategist like Alfred or Ivan, but still - he was at least able to contribute. Ludwig didn't smile back.

"We should take a field trip over to where this guy got shot." Alfred suggested. "We should take a look at the whole crime scene. Is it still being preserved?"

Gil nodded. "Yup. But not for very much longer. We've been trying to keep the whole situation under wraps, but people are gonna start asking questions soon if we don't hurry and clean up."

"Sorry to interrupt your, ah, strategic planning session," Arthur spoke up suddenly, and although the words were polite, something in his tone made Ludwig feel that he was internally rolling his eyes. "But since I can't be any help with in this strategic planning or on the, um, field trip, allow me to help with something that I'm actually an expert in." His chair scraped the floor as he stood up from the table in one smooth motion. "Gil, do you have the body of the operative preserved?"

"In the morgue waiting for you. And the three homicide victims will be down there too." Gil nodded.

"Excellent." Arthur nodded. "I'll take a look and see what I can find. Cheers, everyone. I'll be in touch."

" _Au revoir, mon amour._ " Francis chimed in with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Feliciano giggled.

With his case file in hand and a scowl thrown in the direction of Francis, Arthur made his way to the exit and left with a chorus of goodbyes following him.

"Ah, I am terribly sorry." Kiku spoke up suddenly. "But I must go as well. If you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to call. I will be downstairs, as usual...Oh!" He exclaimed suddenly. "Please excuse me, I have forgotten something very important." He bowed to the table, and then hurried out of the room, leaving his dark laptop behind.

For a brief moment, Ludwig wondered what secrets the unassuming laptop held. With it just sitting there so innocently, and with no one outright protecting it, he wondered if just by taking glance at the screen he could possibly see some of the presumably millions of secrets and data that the Hive collected and held. _  
Probably not_. He almost laughed at himself. _It's got to have a password, right?_

Gilbert sighed. "Well, off we go I guess. It's too bad." He pouted dramatically. "I liked this little pow-wow. But anyways," He glanced down at his case file. "We have work to do. We've only- oh, that was fast, Kiku."

Ludwig turned to see Kiku hurrying back into the room. "It was on its way here via delivery. I found the deliveryman in the hallway." He explained. As he returned to the table, he shut the lid of his laptop - effectively ruining any chance that Ludwig would have to peek at it - and slid it aside to instead place a large black briefcase on the table in its place.

"These are for everyone." He spun the case around to show the room its contents. Eight pristine smartphones gleamed in the sunlight. Beside each one lay a small, black, wireless earbud piece. "They are for contacting the Hive, Gilbert, and each other." He explained. "All of your numbers have been programmed into them already. The ear pieces are just in case you want to speak more discretely, of course." He smiled, proud of his work, Ludwig assumed.

Before he could ask why they couldn't just use their regular cell phones, Gilbert spoke again. "They're locked down. More secure than your regular phones so that we don't get any leaks on this case."

"Duuuude." Alfred breathed with a smile as Kiku handed him one.

"As I was saying." Gilbert smirked. "We've got a lot of work to do. We've identified only one of the three victims so far; the Hive is working on the other two, and we still have to identify the operative. We're hoping he's local. And," he paused to look at Francis. "We have to interview victim number one's family. They were home the night of the attack."

" _Aiyaa_ …" Yao breathed. "They witnessed it?"

It was Yao's single question that suddenly made the room cold. There were only a few things in the world more horrific than watching someone you love die.

Watching someone carve an X into your loved one's chest, for example, would be absolutely haunting.

"Sort of." Gilbert tilted his head. "We need to interview them again. The victim's family was home but not all of them saw the same thing...It's his husband and two children. Anyways, we have a lot to do so let's divide and conquer."

Gilbert stood up suddenly, placing his hands flat on the table as he surveyed the room. Another smirk touched his lips, and his ruby eyes shone.

"Kiku, head back to the Hive and see if you can identify the other two victims or the operative. Alfred and Ivan, you guys stay here and take a look at the ballistics reports of the operative's shooting and the details of the sniper. Let us know if you find anything. Ludwig, take Francis and Feliciano to interview the victim's family; I want you to take the lead on this case. Yao, go with them; take a case file and let us know what you can about the actual murder; the operative must have broken into the house to kill his victim, so maybe you can tell us how he did it." He began to collect his case file back together, stuffing the pages back inside the folder in typical Gilbert fashion. "Everyone, keep your phones handy in case Arthur or Kiku come back with anything. Oh and guys?"

He stopped to survey everyone in the room as his smirk faded. "Be careful. We don't know much about this X Nation, but we know for a fact that they're dangerous. So be on the lookout." He smirked again as he was met with a chorus of nods affirmatives. "Alright! Let's get to work, team!" He beamed, and turned to the door.

"Gil!" Francis' voice was heard over the sound of multiple chairs shifting and papers being collected. "You didn't tell us. What's the victim's name?"

Gilbert tossed the name back to the group over his shoulder as he left the room. "Berwald Oxenstierna. I think he was Swedish."

* * *

" _The files that you requested sir."_ The man said as he placed the stack of nine grey folders on the polished oak desk. The man at the desk placed his cigar in its ashtray. " _Spread them out. I want to see all of them."_ He commanded. His subordinate worked quickly to make enough room so that the faces in each folder could be seen.

The man at the desk hummed as he studied each one. Eventually, his eyes came to rest on one face in particular and he scowled. " _Of course."_ He muttered. He stood up suddenly, causing his subordinate to jump slightly.

" _Get me my coat and a jet. I need to see this for myself."_

* * *

Despite himself, despite his usual concentration and despite a corner of his brain yelling at him _Focus! Think, you idiot! You've got work to do!_ , Ludwig found himself in utter awe of this Vargas character. Feliciano was definitely his name, but it was so elegant and so...romantic sounding that Ludwig was afraid that if he were to say it out loud that his German accent would cause him to butcher it. Regardless, he lead the way for Feliciano Vargas, Yao and Francis to the interrogation and interview blocks a few floors down from the Fishbowl.

Kiku had disappeared back down into the Hive and Gilbert had retreated back to his office to attend other matters, effectively leaving the team on their own to figure out what they could and find what they may. Alfred and Ivan stayed in the Fishbowl, pouring themselves over the images and reports of the sniper and his target - the operative, while Arthur was apparently doing whatever it was forensic experts did with dead bodies down in the lab.

Everyone was working it seemed, except for Ludwig who found himself trying to understand what Francis and Feliciano were gushing about. They were evidently excited to see each other, meaning that they had to be old friends of some sort. This also would explain why they were speaking to each other so rapidly, and had been doing so since they left the Fishbowl together. Ludwig tried to pick up parts of their conversation, but Francis spoke mostly in French - apparently Feliciano Vargas could speak some French as well - and Feliciano would reply in English with a few French phrases mixed in.

Yao, surprisingly, didn't seem as eager to hear their words, as he followed silently behind the three of them, his eyes scanning the hallway and the building as they walked. Twice Ludwig caught Yao's eyes trailing over vents in the walls, and Ludwig wondered (with mild curiosity and a lot of fear) where Yao had learned to enter and apparently exit buildings the way he did. Regardless, Yao didn't seem to mind or care about Francis and Feliciano's excited conversation.

As the four of them stepped into the elevator, Ludwig found himself not just listening to Feliciano's chipper voice, but also watching his lips as they moved, his eyes as they shifted and blinked, and his hands as they made wild gestures. He was Italian, no doubt, but he spoke French - at least enough to understand Francis, and was the son of the one and only Vargas.

It didn't seem right to Ludwig, that the son of Romulus Vargas, one of the most respected, feared and powerful men in the world, was shorter than average, slim, had big beautiful eyes that seemed permanently closed in excitement, a bright smile, and an odd curl of hair sticking up from the side of his head. This was not at all what the son of Vargas sh-

 _Wait, did I just call his eyes beautiful?_ Ludwig mentally slapped himself. _No, they're not. Well, they're nice. By our standards of beauty they are beautiful. Not that I think that they are. No. Stop overthinking this and focus!_ He shook his head of the thoughts. _Focus!_

* * *

 _...bled out after he was shot look at the bullet wound he was killed within a few minutes and has been dead for a little over 48 hours must have really walked a lot I mean look at his leg muscles bloody hell this guy was a bit of a giant I suppose anyways run some tests on the blood samples perhaps he was intoxicated or drugged with something oh and send that DNA off to the other lab to be tested against existing database entries if we already have his DNA on file from somewhere else we can identify him no problem..._

This was the usual stream of consciousness that Arthur comfortably relaxed into as he worked. This was his favourite and best way to work; the employees in the morgue had helpfully moved the bodies into a separate lab for him to work with and gave him every resource he could imagine. The best part; he was alone with his thoughts.

 _...Okay what about the operative...what can the body tell us about this guy…_

He shifted his focus to the deceased member of the X Nation. The man had been tall, dark blonde, and had a very noticeable curved scar on his forehead, which now lay beside the open round wound in his head caused by a bullet. As Arthur stared down at the body, his thoughts continued.

 _...I wonder how he got that scar on his forehead oh well if the Hive can't put a match to his face then maybe there's something on him that I can use to help us identify him I mean what else could I find maybe if I check his pocket's contents yeah I'll do that where is that…_

The body lay resting on the metal table in only a hospital gown. The clothes he had been wearing had been emptied of its pocket's contents and put into bags for evidence. Arthur, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves, ignored the larger plastic bag of his clothing - although he had to admit the striped blue scarf he had had was rather nice looking, but he briefly wondered if he had been sweating while wearing it - and instead opted to inspect the contents of a smaller bag that held what had been in his pockets.

It wasn't much to go on. There was a long silver pipe; obviously this guy had been a smoker, some loose change and scraps of paper and discarded receipts. Well, he would start with the paper and receipts. Perhaps Kiku could track the purchases that were made, or something of the sort, to find out who this guy was. He pulled out his phone and opened the camera app to take photos.

As he spread out the scraps of paper across the work table, his thoughts continued.

 _...This guy bought some food, saw a movie a few days ago, and paid for parking like a normal guy up until he decided to murder somebody what the bloody hell motivated him to do that? Oh well it doesn't matter right now finish taking these photographs and send them to Kiku so that the Hive can-_

His train of thought paused as he spread out and regarded the last piece of paper. Unlike the others, this one wasn't a receipt or straw wrapper or the foil from a pack of gum. It was a scrap of blank paper - notebook paper, maybe - with some writing scrawled onto it in blue ink.

 ** _88 Bank Street at 7pm Friday_**

 ** _Formal._**

Arthur stared at the paper. It wasn't just the address, time and date that struck him as odd. No, it was the small spot of blood on the corner of the paper that made him stop.

 _If he got shot in the head…_ Arthur pondered. _How on earth did blood get into his pocket?_

His eyes trailed over to the bag filled with clothing.

Less than a minute later, Arthur had found three very interesting pieces of evidence. The first was the scrap of paper with a date and time and place. The second was the spot of blood on the corner of that paper. The third was the blood gracing the inside edge of the blue striped scarf. And the small drops of blood on the inside of the jacket that had seeped through the bloody shirt that the mystery man had been wearing.

Arthur could only hold up the ruined shirt in awe. _This….is way too much blood for a head shot._ His heart hammered in his chest as he grabbed a scalpel off of the work table.

Carefully, Arthur made his way back over to the body. He hovered over it for a moment, hesitating, before holding one edge of the hospital gown down to slice it open with the scalpel that he held. Once the front of the gown was opened, Arthur lifted the two edges as if he was opening the lid of a box, and stared at the chest of the mystery operative.

He didn't need to do scar tissue testing to be able to tell what this meant. His training was enough to tell him that something was definitely wrong.

As he stared at the X slashed into the mystery operative's chest, his blood ran cold.

 _...well shit._


	3. Chapter 3

**Still trying to get my writing back on track and pack for university at the same time...Sorry guys!  
** **On another note, does anyone want to share some university tips with me? :)**

 **On another ANOTHER note, I finally checked this story's traffic stats and I'm shocked at how many people are still reading the updates even though it's been so long since the initial publish! Thank you so much, you guys, I really appreciate it!**

 **I'll do my best to keep you all entertained; I've been writing at 2am and crazy hours like that because I find that I'm a bit more creative when I'm deliriously tired, haha.**

 **As always, reviews, favourites, follows and feedback is are all greatly appreciated!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-luvlani88**

* * *

The interrogation room that held the deceased's husband was what was often called a'soft' interrogation room. The husband of Oxenstierna was no criminal. Thus he wouldn't be treated as such; rather than the stereotypical metal desk and chairs with a sharp bright light to shine in a person's face, the soft interrogation room was just that - soft. While the room still had a one-way mirror beside the door, the room was equipped with a large couch, a coffee table, and two love seats; there was even a smaller table with a ficus plant and watering can at one end of the room.

The coffee table also always had two blank notepads, a pencil holder to hold pens, and a box of tissues resting on top. Today, that box was being used fiercely by the widow of the Swede.

"Poor guy…" Feliciano pouted as the four of them stared into the room at the young man sitting on the couch. His shoulders shook with every small sob he tried to contain. Perched on the edge of the couch seat, he had several used tissues crumpled around him on the table in front of him, as well as one in his hand which he pressed to his eyes.

"Tino Vainamoinen." Ludwig said out loud as he read through the case file. "Oxenstierna's husband. Didn't witness the actual murder, but found his husband shot on the floor and held his hand as he died."

Francis, in response, let out a low whistle. "What about the children?"

Ludwig turned a page in his file. "Sleeping in their beds at the time. The attack happened around 9:17pm on a school night." He responded. "And they're little children."

A sullen silence hung over the four men as they considered this. Ludwig watched as the man - Tino - crumpled up his now used tissue and immediately reached for another one to wipe his eyes. It was Yao, who had been silent up until now, who spoke up by asking, "He was upstairs in the back of the house?"

Ludwig turned to find the man reading a file from his own folder; a floor map of the house and with indications about where and when the attack occurred in the form of little red X's and arrows. Even though it wasn't facing him, Ludwig could make out the address and the time 9:17pm in boldface font through the paper. "So the operative broke in, shot Oxenstierna, put an X in his chest and ran before the husband could see him."

To this, Ludwig nodded. "Seems that way, yes." He agreed as he, Francis and Feliciano studied their own copies of the floor map. "So how do we want to go about this? I don't mind interrogating him first. I have a lot of experience w-"

"He let him in, aru."

Ludwig blinked as he turned to face Yao. "...Excuse me?" Yao hadn't looked up from his map. "The swede. He let the operative in the home."

It took Ludwig a second to process this, and another to open his mouth to respond - but by the time he did, Francis had spoken up. "How do you know, Yao?"

"Because, it happened too fast for there to be a break-in. Look." He held the map out for the three of them to see. "The report says that they have a three story home, aru. The basement, the main floor and the top floor, right? The husband's upstairs putting the kids to bed. The children's bedrooms are at the back of the house at the top floor." He paused, glancing up at the three of them, before his eyes settled on Feliciano. "Feliciano, go and stand further back over there." He pointed to the end of the hallway which they had come from, near the elevator.

"Okay!" Feliciano nodded and hurried to stand where he had been instructed.

"Feliciano can be the children in their beds. Francis, go and stand with him, aru. You can be the husband. Ludwig, go back a few feet and wait. I'll be the Swede, you be the operative."

Ludwig hesitated, but when Francis began to move back to where Feliciano was standing, he realized there was no point in causing an argument over anything at this point. Besides, he had to admit he was interested in where this was going.

As they got into position, Yao continued. "So, the husband is at the back of the house upstairs with the children in their bedrooms, the operative is outside of the house and I'm the Swede who hasn't died yet, aru. The shooting happened allegedly at 9:17pm. Let's pretend it is 9:16pm. We're all in our places, we don't know where the Swede is but we can assume he's somewhere on the main floor."

"How do you know?" Ludwig blurted out, before he could stop himself. "That he's on the main floor."

Yao, for the first time, looked mildly amused; his mouth quirked up into a smirk and he raised a slender eyebrow. "Because that's what the husband said. It's in the file."

Ludwig wasn't sure how to respond. _Was I so distracted by these people that I missed that?_

Thankfully, Yao continued. "So, Ludwig - as the operative - starts trying to break into the front door. Standard household lock, if you have the right tools and enough practice can be cracked in about a minute or two." He paused and glanced at Ludwig. "Don't ask how I know that."

"Don't worry, I won't."

"So the operative is trying to pick the lock. The Swede hears the clicking, or sees a shadow and moves to the front door to see what's going on. By then the operative is spotted, and - "

"And he calls out to the husband to tell him that there's someone trying to break in." Francis interjects, a glint in his eye. "And the husband calls the cops, the operative doesn't make it in or is scared off by police, and the Swede doesn't die."

"But that's not what happened." Ludwig said.

"No, aru." Yao shook his head.

"How do we know he didn't just miss the sound of the lock being picked?" Ludwig asked.

"Two reasons, aru." Yao bit the inside of his cheek, thoughtfully. "The first is that we know he was already near the door when the shooting happened, so he knew the operative was at the door, aru. So the operative didn't take him by surprise, in that sense, aru."

"And the second reason?"

It was Francis who replied, as he seemed to be catching on. "The timing. But that's more circumstantial." His eyebrows knitted together. "You could argue that if the shooting took place at 9:17pm and the lock needed about a minute or two to pick that the operative either did it quickly enough to open the lock and shoot in within a two minute time frame, in which Oxenstierna would already have to be near the door, or the timeline is slightly awry." He glanced up at Ludwig shrugged. "But that's a weak argument."

To this, Yao nodded. "Either way, it's safe to say that there wasn't a break-in. Lock and door weren't damaged either, according to the report, aru. So…"

Yao took a few steps closer to Ludwig. "What if, instead of you coming to me, the Swede goes to the operative?"

Ludwig pondered this. "You come and open the door for me and I shoot you when you do."

Yao smirked. "Exactly."

"But why would he let him in? Especially if the operative had a…" Ludwig paused as he collected his thoughts, and nodded as he understood. "The Swede didn't see the gun. He opened the door because he was unafraid."

"Now you're catching on." Yao clapped his hands together. "So the Swede lets him in, you raise a gun and shoot -" To complete the scene, Ludwig raised a finger gun and aimed at Yao. "- and he falls back from the impact of the bullet, aru." Yao took two steps backwards. "Now," He glanced back at Feliciano and Francis. "This is important. Feliciano, stay there. Francis, you hear the gunshot coming from the main floor. In the next minute, a few things are going to happen, aru."

Yao turned back to Ludwig and pointed a finger at him. "You're going to pull a knife out of your pocket, place a hand over my mouth and carve an X in my chest, aru. Remember, I'm still alive so I can still make noise. The shot was to the abdomen."

Again, he turned back to Francis. "Francis, you're going to pause for a few seconds and then tell Feliciano "Stay there", or something like that. Then, you're going to hurry downstairs and see your husband on the ground bleeding as the operative runs out the door, aru. It's going to take you a few seconds to leave the room and hurry down the stairs to your husband."

"And let me guess, I'm only going to see the back of him, not what he looks like." Francis raised an eyebrow, to which Yao nodded. "Of course. That's how this always works, isn't it? _C'est un cliché, n'est ce pas?_ "

"The operative shoots on three, ready?" Yao said. "One, two, three!"

As Feliciano watched on, the trio re-enacted what Yao had explained. Ludwig did his best to follow the motions that Yao had set out; including pretending but not actually placing his hand over Yao's mouth and carving an X before 'hurrying out' by taking several quick steps back. As he turned around to watch the rest of the scene, he realized that Francis had just arrived at his 'husband's body'.

"There." Yao said, when they were finished. "That's what happened. And I can tell you that the Swede most likely let him in the house for this all to happen before or at 9:17pm." He said certainly.

"I believe your timeline." Ludwig replied as he picked up his folder from where he had placed it on the ground earlier. "But hold on a second. This doesn't prove that the Swede let him in when he came to the door. The operative came to the door and _maybe_ the Swede didn't see the gun so he decided to open it and...Wait. I mean, anyone can draw a gun quickly so maybe the operative was hiding the gun and drew it when the door opened and then... I mean…" Ludwig paused again. "I don't know what's missing here but I - "

"He wasn't suspicious of him." Feliciano, who had been since they first arrived at the interrogation hallway, spoke, causing all three heads to turn. He simply beamed at Ludwig. "That's what you're missing."

Ludwig was momentarily stunned. "What?"

"You're right, anyone can draw a gun quickly." Feliciano said as the four of them approached each other again. "So the gun was hidden when the operative came and knocked on the door, since Yao says that he didn't break in…"

Ludwig couldn't help but notice how absolutely Italian Feliciano was - he spoke with his hands as he explained.

"...and even though it's a school night and it's after nine p.m. which is way too late for anyone to be coming over - I mean parents don't like to keep their kids up late on school nights so they don't invite people over or go out later in the night, right? And nobody really opens their door or answers their phones after nine anyways - so Oxenstierna saw the man at the door and recognized him. He either knew that he was coming over to chat for just a little while - since his kids have to go to sleep and he has work in the morning, or he recognized him enough not to get suspicious." Feliciano said, and Ludwig was left with wide eyes .

 _He's actually…_ Ludwig thought. _...Somewhat useful…!_

Francis nodded. "I agree. He must have known Oxenstierna, and Oxenstierna knew him. Only question now…" Francis turned to look back at the man still sniffling in the interrogation room. "...Is whether or not the husband knew him as well."

* * *

"Dude, this guy was sniper prime." Alfred exclaimed as he studied the pages in front of him. "Like top-class killer. I'd hate to play darts with him."

Ivan grinned at this. "I agree." He glanced back at the table, where the duo had laid out the numerous pages of their files, and used pens, pencils, a stapler and some string that Gil had found in his office to try and pinpoint the exact position of the sniper. "It's too bad that we have nothing to identify him with though. We can't even see exactly where he went." He pouted.

"It blows, right? I mean…" Alfred pushed his glasses higher up on his nose. "...Let's see… The operative gets caught by police here, in the middle of - what is this, Front street? He gets caught by police on the sidewalk on Front Street and Fifth Avenue, talks to police for, what did they say, like two minutes?"

Ivan nodded. "About two minutes, yes. And then as they're moving to put him in handcuffs…"

"...Our friendly neighbourhood sniper pops up from here," Alfred continues as he points to one of the photographs of the street. The photographer had purposefully aimed the camera up to the top of the building where the shot had come from. "This is just a retail store, right?"

"No, the store that the operative was killed in front of was the retail store." Ivan corrected him. "This is a laundromat."

"Right. So the sniper pops up from the top of the laundromat, shoots the operative and ducks away before anyone can see him. How far away was the operative from the sniper?"

Ivan pulled another sheet of paper towards himself. "Well, we can place the operative and the police officers on the sidewalk over here...See?" With one hand, the Russian pointed at the black and white aerial map of the street, specifically at a spot that the two had marked with a pen. "We know that they were here, since the photograph of the pool of blood on the ground and the body are here." With his other hand, he held up the photograph of the operative's body, sprawled out on the sidewalk.

The photograph had been taken from the side of the body; his blond hair was turned slightly orange from the blood around his head, and his face was turned away from the camera. The entry wound of the bullet hole could clearly be seen. Alfred had seen this photograph several times before in the past hour - he tried to steer clear of it as Ivan seemed to really enjoy staring at the bloody hole in the dead man's head - but this time he studied it.

"And of course, we have no witnesses that saw the sniper." He muttered as he rolled his eyes. "Great. Well, maybe we can…" His voice trailed off.

Slowly, Alfred reached a hand towards the photograph, his eyes locked to the glossy image.

"What?" Ivan asked, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

The American took the photograph carefully in his hand and then laid it out flat against the table. With narrow eyes, his index finger stabbed at something in the corner. "This retail store…" He breathed.

"What? What about it?" Ivan's eyebrows knitted together as he tried to make out the dark smudge in the corner of the photograph that Alfred was pointing to.

With a grin, Alfred looked up at him. "This retail store has a security camera!"

* * *

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. Vainamoinen." Feliciano said. Somehow, to Ludwig, even a sentence like that still held a happy note.

Yao had waited outside while the three of them had ventured inside to confront -and comfort- the crying man.

Ludwig couldn't help but notice that despite the differences in nationality, Vainamoinen reminded him quite a bit of Feliciano; especially because he was sitting beside him on the couch. He too was small and slim, but instead of the auburn curls that donned Feliciano's head, Vainamoinen had light blond hair that floated around his crying visage, bright blue eyes and a small nose. He was cute, Ludwig realized, in a sort of angelic puppy sort of way.

"T-thank you." Vainamoinen. "And y-you're the people who are going to find out who did this to him, right? So please, call me Tino." He offered a watery smile to the trio.

"Well...Tino." Francis offered a small smile back. "I understand that you've spoken to the police about what happened already…?"

Tino nodded timidly in response.

"And the police already took evidence and photographs from the crime scene, _oui_?"

" _Joo_. I mean, y-yes."

"Then we just want to ask you a few more questions, and then we'll get right back to work, _oui_?"

"O-okay."

At this, Francis nodded at Ludwig, who opened his case. File. "Mr. Va- Tino." He corrected himself. "You already told the police officers that you didn't see much of the man who killed your husband, but it's been a while now." Ludwig leaned forwards. "Is there anything else that you can remember about that night? Maybe you noticed something, or heard something or saw something…?"

Tino shook his head. "I can't remember anything new, I'm sorry."

"That's okay!" Feliciano exclaimed. "Maybe there's nothing new to remember!"

Francis agreed. "Exactly. Maybe there's something that you saw or heard that you didn't think very much of before, but could actually be useful for us. We're trying to identify the man who killed Berwald, so why don't we talk about what you saw when you came down the stairs."

At the mention of this, Tino's eyes began to water again. He grasped desperately at his tissue as Feliciano patted his arm. "I-I'm sorry." He apologized, even as the trio reaffirmed him that it wasn't a problem.

"I...I don't remember much. I - I think I was in shock." Tino stammered. "I heard the...the g-gunshot and then I told my children to wait upstairs and then I hurried downstairs a-and…" He broke off into a sob, and Feliciano patted his arm again. He continued, "I came down and.." He paused. "And the front door was open and the man ran outside and at first I thought it was Berwald but then I looked down and s-saw him...saw him lying there…" He sobbed again, clutching his tissue tightly in his hand.

"So you didn't see the face of the man who ran?" Ludwig asked.

Tino shook his head.

"Did you hear anything? Could he have said something to Berwald before the gunshot?"

Again Tino shook his head. His face was suddenly a white sheet. Again, tears started brimming in Tino's eyes.

"Maybe that's enough for now, Ludwig." Francis spoke suddenly. "Thank you for your time, Tino. Again, we are very, very sorry for your loss. Feliciano will stay with you for a moment, won't you Feliciano?"

As Ludwig glanced at him quizzically, Feliciano nodded. "Yes, of course!"

"Wonderful. Ludwig will you come with me for a moment?"

Before Ludwig could reply, Francis grabbed him by his arm with a surprising amount of force and all but hauled him out of the room. As soon as the door shut behind them, Francis whirled around to face Ludwig and Yao, who raised a single eyebrow.

"He knows something else."

"What?!" Ludwig gaped. "How do you know?"

"I just do. I'm pretty sure Feliciano knows as well. So," Francis glanced back to the two-way mirror, through which they could see the two young men sitting on the couch.

"...Let's see if Feliciano can get him to come clean."

* * *

 **Translations:**

 _"Oui"_ (French) - "Yes".

" _C'est un cliché, n'est ce pas?"_ (French) - "It's cliche, isn't it?"

" _Joo."_ (Finnish) - Yes.


End file.
